Waterloo Ends Napoleon: The Duke of Wellington Triumphs
Napoleon's last gamble ended at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, when Prussian reinforcements under Field Marshal Blucher struck his right flank just as the Imperial Guard was making its final assault on Wellington's line. The Guard had never been repulsed before; when it broke, the French army dissolved into a rout. Napoleon lost approximately 25,000 killed and wounded and 8,000 captured. Wellington, who called it "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life," lost 15,000 men. Blucher's Prussians lost 7,000. Napoleon fled to Paris, abdicated four days later, and surrendered to the British on July 15. He was exiled to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. The battle ended 23 years of nearly continuous warfare in Europe and ushered in a century of relative peace maintained by the Concert of Europe.
June 18, 1815
211 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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